John Gordon (c. 1815 – February 14, 1845) was the last person

executed Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty and formerly called judicial homicide, is the state-sanctioned killing of a person as punishment for actual or supposed misconduct. The sentence (law), sentence ordering that an offender b ...

by the U.S. state of

Rhode Island Rhode Island ( ) is a state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders Connecticut to its west; Massachusetts to its north and east; and the Atlantic Ocean to its south via Rhode Island Sound and Block Is ...

. His conviction and execution have been ascribed by researchers to anti-

Roman Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics worldwide as of 2025. It is among the world's oldest and largest international institut ...

and anti- Irish

immigrant Immigration is the international movement of people to a destination country of which they are not usual residents or where they do not possess nationality in order to settle as permanent residents. Commuters, tourists, and other short- ...

bias.McKay, Scott
"Judge's old notes shed light on last execution in R.I."
''

Providence Journal ''The Providence Journal'', colloquially known as the ''ProJo'', is a daily newspaper serving the metropolitan area of Providence, the largest newspaper in Rhode Island, US. The newspaper was first published in 1829. The newspaper had won four ...

''. May 25, 2008. As a result, he was posthumously pardoned in 2011.Erika Niedowski
"RI governor pardons Irish man hanged in 1845"

Associated Press The Associated Press (AP) is an American not-for-profit organization, not-for-profit news agency headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1846, it operates as a cooperative, unincorporated association, and produces news reports that are dist ...

, 2011-06-29. In 1844, Gordon was tried and convicted for the December 31, 1843, beating

murder Murder is the unlawful killing of another human without justification (jurisprudence), justification or valid excuse (legal), excuse committed with the necessary Intention (criminal law), intention as defined by the law in a specific jurisd ...

of Amasa Sprague, a Cranston

textile Textile is an Hyponymy and hypernymy, umbrella term that includes various Fiber, fiber-based materials, including fibers, yarns, Staple (textiles)#Filament fiber, filaments, Thread (yarn), threads, and different types of #Fabric, fabric. ...

factory owner. Sprague was a member of a prominent Rhode Island family. His brother

William William is a masculine given name of Germanic languages, Germanic origin. It became popular in England after the Norman Conquest, Norman conquest in 1066,All Things William"Meaning & Origin of the Name"/ref> and remained so throughout the Middle ...

was a

United States senator The United States Senate consists of 100 members, two from each of the 50 U.S. state, states. This list includes all senators serving in the 119th United States Congress. Party affiliation Independent Senators Angus King of Maine and Berni ...

. Six months before his murder, Amasa Sprague had used his family's political influence to have Cranston resident Nicholas Gordon's

liquor license A liquor license (or liquor licence in most forms of Commonwealth English) is a governmentally issued permit for businesses to sell, manufacture, store, or otherwise use alcoholic beverages. Canada In Canada, liquor licences are issued by the l ...

removed by the city council. (Sprague's employees were habitually getting drunk at Gordon's premises.) Nicholas Gordon and his brother John were

immigrants from

Ireland Ireland (, ; ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe. Geopolitically, the island is divided between the Republic of Ireland (officially Names of the Irish state, named Irelan ...

. Nicholas, John and William Gordon (another brother) were all tried for murder, but only John was convicted, a conviction based on contradictory circumstantial evidence. William was found not guilty and in Nicholas's trial, held after John's execution, the

jury A jury is a sworn body of people (jurors) convened to hear evidence, make Question of fact, findings of fact, and render an impartiality, impartial verdict officially submitted to them by a court, or to set a sentence (law), penalty or Judgmen ...

was hung. John Gordon was executed by

hanging Hanging is killing a person by suspending them from the neck with a noose or ligature strangulation, ligature. Hanging has been a standard method of capital punishment since the Middle Ages, and has been the primary execution method in numerou ...

in the state jail in

Providence Providence often refers to: * Providentia, the divine personification of foresight in ancient Roman religion * Divine providence, divinely ordained events and outcomes in some religions * Providence, Rhode Island, the capital of Rhode Island in the ...

. The court justices, which included Justice

Job Durfee Job Durfee (September 20, 1790 – July 26, 1847) was a politician and jurist from Rhode Island. Born at Tiverton, Rhode Island, Tiverton, he graduated from Brown University in 1813 and was admitted to the Bar (law), bar and commenced practice in ...

, that were involved in all three trials acted as both trial judges and the court of final appeal.Hoffman, Charles G. and Tess Hoffmann (1998). ''Brotherly Love: Murder and the Politics of Prejudice in Nineteenth-Century Rhode Island''. Boston:

University of Massachusetts Press The University of Massachusetts Press is a university press that is part of the University of Massachusetts Amherst. The press was founded in 1963, publishing scholarly books and non-fiction. The press imprint is overseen by an interdisciplinar ...

. . Included in jury instructions, Durfee "told the jurors to give greater weight to Yankee witnesses than Irish witnesses." Seven years after Gordon's execution, Rhode Island abolished the death penalty. Although it was reintroduced in 1872, no executions took place before capital punishment was abolished again by the state in 1984. In the 1990s, when the

Rhode Island General Assembly The State of Rhode Island General Assembly is the state legislature of the U.S. state of Rhode Island. A bicameral body, it is composed of the lower Rhode Island House of Representatives with 75 representatives, and the upper Rhode Island Se ...

considered reinstating the death penalty, Gordon's case was used by those against reinstatement to demonstrate the dangers of capital punishment. In 2011, playwright Ken Dooley wrote and produced a stage play “The Murder Trial of John Gordon”. It ran 21 times at the Park Theater in Cranston, Rhode Island. Following his attending the play, State Representative Peter Martin istrict 75 - Newportintroduced a resolution requesting that then Governor Lincoln Chafee grant a posthumous pardon to Gordon based on evidence that he, Gordon, had been subjected to a prejudiced trial. Following passing of the resolution by the Rhode Island General Assembly, Governor

Lincoln Chafee Lincoln Davenport Chafee ( ; born March 26, 1953) is an American politician. He was mayor of Warwick, Rhode Island, from 1993 to 1999, a United States Senator from 1999 to 2007, and the 74th Governor of Rhode Island from 2011 to 2015. He was a ...

pardoned Gordon on June 29, 2011. The legislation was sponsored in the

House of Representatives House of Representatives is the name of legislative bodies in many countries and sub-national entities. In many countries, the House of Representatives is the lower house of a bicameral legislature, with the corresponding upper house often ...

by Peter F. Martin and in the

Senate A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or chamber of a bicameral legislature. The name comes from the ancient Roman Senate (Latin: ''Senatus''), so-called as an assembly of the senior (Latin: ''senex'' meaning "the el ...

Michael McCaffrey Michael J. McCaffrey (born December 18, 1963) is an American politician and a Democratic member of the Rhode Island Senate representing District 29 since January 2003. He has been the Rhode Island Senate Majority Leader since March 23, 2017. McC ...

. Chafee signed the proclamation of pardon at the Old State House, where Gordon's trial had taken place more than 150 years before. In September 2014,

Enda Kenny Enda Kenny (born 24 April 1951) is an Irish former Fine Gael politician who served as Taoiseach from 2011 to 2017, Leader of Fine Gael from 2002 to 2017, Minister for Defence (Ireland), Minister for Defence from May to July 2014 and 2016 to 201 ...

, the

Taoiseach The Taoiseach (, ) is the head of government or prime minister of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. The office is appointed by the President of Ireland upon nomination by Dáil Éireann (the lower house of the Oireachtas, Ireland's national legisl ...

of Ireland, visited the Rhode Island Irish Famine Memorial and in a speech praised Martin and Chafee for pardoning Gordon.Simon Carswell
"Government in talks to set up direct flight between Shannon and Rhode Island"
''

Irish Times ''The Irish Times'' is an Irish daily broadsheet newspaper and online digital publication. It was launched on 29 March 1859. The editor is Ruadhán Mac Cormaic. It is published every day except Sundays. ''The Irish Times'' is Ireland's leading n ...

'', 24 September 2014.

Notes

References

*Paul Caranci, ''The Hanging and Redemption of John Gordon'' (History Press, 2013) *Patrick T. Conley, "The Origins of the Governor's Pardoning Power" in ''People, Places, Laws and Lore of the Ocean State'' (Rhode Island Publications Society, 2012). {{DEFAULTSORT:Gordon, John 1810s births 1845 deaths 19th-century executions by the United States 19th-century executions of American people Irish people executed abroad American people executed for murder American people wrongfully convicted of murder Anti-Irish sentiment Anti-Catholicism in the United States Irish emigrants to the United States 19th-century Irish people People convicted of murder by Rhode Island People executed by Rhode Island by hanging People from Cranston, Rhode Island Recipients of American gubernatorial pardons People who have received posthumous pardons Wrongful executions in the United States

See also

Notes

References